Wednesday, August 10, 2005

I'm late to the party. I hadn't heard about Wine Blogging Wednesday, and now it's already a year old.This month's challenge is to find as local a wine as possible. Funny, I was just Googling that information a few days ago, so I'm ready with my answer.My personal challenge was not only to find a winery near my house, but one that grows grapes within Marin County. There are, after all, scads of small winemakers all over the Bay Area who buy their grapes in Napa or Sonoma. (I was one myself, back in the 1970s, while I was living in San Bruno and attending Stanford. I got a load of Pinot Noir grapes from Napa -- bad choice in those days, but who knew? -- stomped 'em in a clean trash barrel, and bottled up a barely drinkable potion I dubbed "Crimson Breath." But never mind.)Anyway, I've discovered Pey-Marin Vineyards, owned by a couple who live in San Anselmo (5 miles from my house, though I'm not certain that's where they do the winemaking). Their grapes are grown just north of Nicasio (14 miles), so I consider that pretty darned local.I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to locate a bottle of their 2003 Pey-Marin Vineyards “Trois Filles” Pinot Noir because it's too late to order it online.(UPDATE: We found the wine at Mill Valley Market, but Skip, our trusted advisor there, suggested we might prefer the Mount Tamalpais Vineyards Merlot; same vintners, different label. Haven't opened it yet. Lunch today was too simple -- and I'm tired of being creative for a little while. BH&CC prepared plates of Straus cheese, Sebastobol apples and a handful of walnuts from a roadside stand just the other side of Stockton, almost exactly 100 miles.For supper, I think we're gonna clean out the fridge: Minestrone made from leftover zucchini innards, local potatoes, chopped patio tomatoes, chard and onion from Tomales, some of those cooked Rancho Gordo beans I reserved from yesterday for this exact purpose, herbs, cheese -- wot? I'll keep rummaging.)

Who She?

I live a couple of miles from the Marin County Civic Center Farmers' Market, which feeds my little blogging hobby. Hell, it feeds me, too.
Formerly employed, I'm now a bum. Happy bum. Tomato ranchin' bum.
But I'm still mad.